50 pages • 1 hour read
Julie BuxbaumWhat to Say Next
Fiction | Novel | Published in 2017A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 25-31Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 25 Summary: “David”
After the fight, David finds himself suddenly popular, his classmates heaping praise on him. At the Academic League meeting, José is unaware of the incident, though the other team members are impressed, especially since they, too, have been bullied by the football team. He feels uncomfortable with the new social dynamics of the team but likes the academic aspects.
David is shocked when he realizes that he forgot his scheduled guitar lesson with Trey. Trey, to his surprise, is happy. Though David wants to hurry into his guitar lesson, Trey presses him to chat. When Trey mentions that he is majoring in psychology, David realizes that Trey is more “social skills tutor” than guitar tutor, which makes him “feel stupid” (245). He scolds Trey for not mentioning this, as he would have paid more attention to the social skills, which he has been unable to learn elsewhere.
Chapter 26 Summary: “Kit”
Kit scolds herself for her emotional reaction to not being named editor-in-chief, as she considered the activity primarily a benefit to her college applications, not a lifelong dream. When Mandip demands that they talk, Kit snaps back, insulting her mother and using sex-shaming slurs. Kit says that she wishes her mother died instead of her father, and though she immediately regrets her words, she doesn’t take them back. This makes Mandip break down crying over the pain of losing her husband while he was uncertain of her love for him.
At Kit’s prodding, Mandip explains that she felt “invisible” and that when she mentioned this to Robert, he was “condescending.” She says that Jack was similarly lonely following his divorce; their friendship grew, and they had sex after drinking one evening. Mandip immediately confessed the affair to her husband. She claims that Kit is too young to understand, but Mandip tells her that she loves her and asks for forgiveness. She regrets that she cannot “protect” her daughter, something that Kit insists she doesn’t need.
Later, Kit congratulates Violet and Annie on being named co-editors-in-chief. They enthusiastically urge Kit to bring David to an upcoming party, proclaiming themselves “#teamdavid.”
Chapter 27 Summary: “David”
Kit invites David to the party, which he enthusiastically accepts. Miney takes him shopping and explains what the experience will likely entail. He asks Miney for “instructions” on dancing, but she urges him to use “intuition and instinct,” things David cites as personal weaknesses (260). He wonders if this will be his one chance to kiss Kit; Miney agrees, though she believes that his chances of doing so are low.
Chapter 28 Summary: “Kit”
Kit steals clothes and alcohol from her mother, whom she is still avoiding, which makes her feel unlike her normal self. She likes it when David compliments her appearance at the party, however. David struggles against the urge to clean up the party’s messes. He refuses alcohol, as he drove to the party. Kit drinks, quickly growing intoxicated. She and David sit alone outside, and Kit is pleased that it is easy to flirt with him while drunk. She decides that she wants to kiss David, in part to help her “forget.”
Chapter 29 Summary: “David”
David muses that sitting with Kit makes him “forget” his problems. He stumbles through a request to kiss her; she kisses him before he can finish asking.
Chapter 30 Summary: “Kit”
Kit is surprised to find David adept at kissing. She considers it “the best kiss of [her] life” (274), and they separate only when police arrive to break up the party. David drives Kit home, and she feels happy until, in the middle of the night, she suddenly starts thinking of the accident. She vomits repeatedly.
Chapter 31 Summary: “David”
David marvels at how “perfect” it felt to kiss Kit. He concludes that he is “madly in love” with her (278). He researches how to behave when in love and makes a plan to impress her by completing the “Accident Project” and showing off his skills at the upcoming Academic League competition. His elation turns to distress as he measures the variables of Robert’s accident and concludes that “Kit’s dad shouldn’t be dead” (280).
The next morning, Miney asks why David seems so morose if he had a great night with Kit. He explains that, given his calculations, someone must have lied to Kit about some of the information regarding Robert’s death.
Chapters 25-31 Analysis
This section of the book plays with genre as it looks at and subverts the conventions of the teen movie, something that David uses as a model for social interactions, even as he recognizes the failure of these films to correctly represent his lived experience. David’s decision to wear socially approved clothing instead of the comfortable but unflattering clothing he has long preferred mimics the “makeover montage” of such films. In teen movies, however, these scenes typically involve the female protagonist changing her appearance. David comments on the absurdity of such scenes, noting that teenage boys are not without imagination and can, in real life, see through unflattering clothes to a girl’s beauty. The novel suggests, however, that such an ability may be a function of David’s neurodiversity, as his classmates are genuinely shocked by his change in appearance. Without his socially approved look, Annie and Violet, for example, have never noticed David’s looks.
Similarly, the party scene parallels climactic scenes from many teen films. Unlike in those movies, however, the climactic event of the novel does not happen at or even because of the party. The novel offers and then subverts several potential markers of dramatic turns at the party: David and Kit’s kiss, the arrival of the police, and Kit’s consumption of alcohol. None of these events prove particularly momentous, however, as Kit’s mother is not angry over her hangover, the novel remains uncertain about the friends’ romantic future, and there are no legal repercussions for underage drinking. Instead, it is only after the party, when David figures out that Kit’s father’s accident does not make mathematical sense, that the novel reaches the interpersonal climax between the friends.
The novel does reify certain tropes of teen romantic dramas, however. In Chapters 30 and 31, for example, both Kit and David reflect on how much they enjoyed kissing one another—even as they assume that the other could not possibly have enjoyed the encounter as much. In these aspects, the two teenagers show themselves to be myopically self-absorbed, though not necessarily in a way that causes harm. Instead, they anxiously fret about their own insecurities, which ultimately parallel one another. Though this self-absorption is not framed as inherently harmless—in the final chapters of the novel, David and Kit both hurt one another by reacting impulsively and emotionally—the novel frames a certain level of self-involvement as a normal part of the self-definition that happens during adolescence.
